How Hogwarts reinvented itself
by Iwantmytoast
Summary: AU The war is over for 20 years and our beloved HP characters have found their paths. Headmistress McGonagall has passed in her sleep. Hogwarts needs a new Headmaster but there is no one that seems to fit. Watch as Hogwarts chooses the next in line herself. Can Hogwarts become the school she always wanted to be and what is so special about the new Headmistress?-Mostly OC characters
1. Prologue

In a world, that is very similar to that of our favourite hero, one Harry Potter, an error of most delicate dealings has been found. You may ask yourself, what that error may be? The War has been won and this worlds Harry Potter has continued his life, just as he always wanted. He might have found a lover or continued as it is cannon, living as quite as a life as possible. Similarly, most of his companions. Those who have fought with him in the war. None of those really fond of the idea of leading a more public life. Thus our difficulty in this world approaches. All our favourite characters have grown up and are busy with their own adventures. They deserve not to be written about anymore. They deserve to have peace.

Suddenly a new chapter approaches. We have found our problem. Hogwarts is missing a headmaster or mistress. Headmistress McGonagall has passed away in her sleep a few months ago and a new person to lead the prestigious school has not been found as of yet. Many readers might now wonder why this is a problem, after all there are probably quite a lot of wonderful options of teachers to choose from. But I the author of this wonderful story assure you, that that is not the case what so ever. You see both Pomona Sprout and Filius Flitwick have chosen to enjoy their rest of their lives in a quieter place. Professor Sprout with her family in Ireland and Professor Flitwick with his remaining Family that is still alive with the Goblins of Gringotts. Apart from our second favourite hero deputy headmaster Longbottom none of the other teachers momentarily residing at Hogwarts none of the other teachers have found to be a suitable replacement as Head teacher.

Now my dear readers probably wonder why we are still looking for a new head of the school. Haven't we found one yet? What about Neville, I mean professor Longbottom he is perfect a born leader, compassionate and also well liked. But Neville has confided in us, that after having taken over from Headmistress McGonagall in the middle of term he does not wish to be Headmaster after all. The job title is well over his head and he wishes to resume as Head of House Gryffindor and Professor of Herbology next year.

Thus, we have arrived at our current problem. The board of Governors has frantically been looking for a solution of the problem. Two weeks later, they had found the solution. It was quite easy really. Smarter witches and wizards might have found the solution earlier. They would ask the sorting hat to choose the new headmaster. Originally that was what the hat had done anyways but in recent years there had always been another Headmaster readily available. It was known that Hogwarts itself had to acknowledge and accept the new Headmaster, but what was less known that hat who was tied to Hogwarts was the one making the final decision as it was the being that could see the values and morals of each individual.

Thus the hat was asked, whether he knew someone that was willing to become Headmaster or mistress.

Unknowingly to all of them the hat has had someone in mind for quite a while now. Unknown to many he and Hogwarts hadn't been quite happy how Hogwarts had developed to be in the past century. They had decided that they would keep their senses open to find a possible new head wandering through the halls of Hogwarts. Someone possessing a sense of equality, logic, reason and fairness and most important of all someone who saw what needed to be done to make Hogwarts the great institution that the founders had envisioned her to be. Many students with this potential had wandered the halls. But there was probably only one who was stubborn and cunning enough to make the changes that Hogwarts deserved.

"**Valarie Pericolosa Evighet"**


	2. The Governors of Hogwarts

The School Governors of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry had always been an odd bunch. Originally the Governors were founded to keep Hogwarts separate from the Ministry. In the beginning they were 9 Wizards and Witches chosen by the founders themselves. 2 of each house and one Wizard who was neutral. Someone who didn't attend Hogwarts themselves, who could mediate between the 4 groups and who's final vote was needed in order to push a decision through. While for the first few years this system seemed to work quite well it didn't last long. As soon as the last founder disappeared Governors became less organized. One of the reasons might be that every Headmaster following the founders invited a person themselves to join the existing Governors. As there no rules prohibiting such the existing Governors couldn't well protest against it and after a while it was accepted as a tradition for each Headmaster to add a new Governor to the group. A further reason for the Governors to become less and less effective as instead of voting for another person that seemed suitable for the job to join them after a previous one passed or couldn't join them for other reasons the seats started to be handed down within families. By now technically most families of the British Isles held a seat within the body of Governors, but some forgot, didn't want to take up the post or thought that attending the meetings were a waste of their time. After all those Governors who attended were of the older generation and often had their own agenda of changing the rules, classes or teaching positions within Hogwarts.

Most of them were used to it by now, that the ideas each of them put forward were most likely not to be listened to by any of the others. All of them thought that they knew what was best for the school themselves and if one of them would once be asked who of them is the most influential they would always assume themselves to be number 1. No wonder they were the most useless bunch of individual possible. It was also no surprise, that the school still hadn't received new school brooms since before Harry Potter had attended the prestigious school themselves. Had the Governors not been spending their time fighting each other and had they be actually paying some attention to the school they would have noticed that especially in comparison to the more modern schools which could be found throughout Europe the school wasn't as prestigious after all. In truth graduates of Hogwarts seemed to struggle a lot when attending institutions abroad in comparison to their fellow students from other countries, while students from abroad who were accepted into St Mungo's or apprenticed with the British branch of Gringotts or a British Master seemed to be doing so much better than their British counterparts. Naturally no one likes to think themselves less than average and the problem was ignored by the public.

The meeting of the Governors that took place at this particular evening was like no others. For once they weren't meeting in one of the homes of the members, but at Hogwarts itself. The Governors had after a long period of research and an even longer period of heated discussions finally decided to use the sorting hat to find a new Headmaster, Initially they had all agreed, which was surprising in itself , to use the hat, but then when talking to the hat it had mentioned that if they all agreed to use the hat, giving the decision to Hogwarts, the school the hat and the new Head of School would have the de facto rule over the decisions to change Hogwarts in the first year, to what Hogwarts agreed to and thought was necessary without the Governors input. With such an audacious idea the governors had quickly changed their idea to not use the hat after all. They had thought to find someone themselves. They had even tried to find someone from abroad. But they had quickly found that if they all agreed on a choice Hogwarts wouldn't approve, but that most of the time that they just couldn't agree on a choice between each other. Finally, as September moved closer and closer, the Governors agreed that they essentially had no choice but to agree to let the hat choose the new Headmaster after all. No one was happy with that decision, the idea of letting a piece of felt, tied to Hogwarts or not choose someone who had power over Hogwarts alone for a year without their precious opinions were dawning on them. Most of them hoped that the person wouldn't be efficient enough to make many changes and that after the year, they could take over the reins again moving Hogwarts into the directions they wanted to see. That they hadn't moved Hogwarts into any direction what so ever as they never agreed on anything never occurred to anyone.

Thus the Governors filled into the Great Hall. Professor Longbottom, quite relived that finally he didn't have to be Headmaster anymore had brought the hat. And sat down while the Governors filled in. When everyone was seated and had quieted (Neville thought to himself, that some of them where worse than his first years regarding the noise level while getting comfortable), the hat began to speak. "I see, you have finally agreed to my conditions. Hogwarts and I have both thought of a valid candidate since your last visit, in the hopes that you would agree to letting us choose. I assure you, that that this choice is going to be best for our prestigious school, as such I ask you to honour your agreement. After the first year, the person we have chosen will be by themselves regarding the decisions for the school. But I can assure you all, that as we have chosen **Valarie Pericolosa Evighet,** if she acts against our values, we can easily remove her in her post again."

As usual most of the Governors hadn't quite heard more than what they wanted so throughout the hats small speech, most of the Governors had been stuck on the horrible idea that they wouldn't be in control of the school for a whole year, despite knowing about it already, until the hat spoke the name of the new Headmistress. Immediately the Governors begun murmuring, asking each other who that person was as, they hadn't heard of her. And didn't know anything about her at all. They hadn't expected an unknown they had thought to hear a name known to them from the past war, someone being actively voicing ideas for change. Suddenly an old and wrinkly wizard, who usually stayed silent in most of their meeting spoke up "I think I know who that is. But hat, Valarie went to school with me. I am over 150 years old, if she is still alive, which is a miracle in itself once you're as old as me, she might not be up to the task." "Well, Mr. Snuff, I can assure you that she is quite alive" the hat smirked, "She is quite the remarkable Witch you know, do you remember her potions accident in her 7th year? " The wrinkly wizard nodded looking quite confused. "Well", the hat continued "it's quite remarkable really she hasn't aged a day since then. Many potion masters in Europe have tried to replicate this incident but it is still a mystery." Silence reigned in the Great Hall, no one seemed to have an answer to that. Not only had the hat chosen a complete unknown, apparently it had chosen an immortal? unknown.

Professor Longbottom seemed to be the first to get his thoughts together. "Well hat, can you help us find this person, I would rather not be Headmaster in September after all." The hat crocked his tip to the side as if he thought of a troubling arithmantic problem "Ah… Yes, I believe she lives with her coven in the uninhabited island in Sweden called Blå Jungfrun." "A Coven" a particularly conservative old Witch shouted in shock "Hat, you can't possibly ask someone that evil to be Headmistress, no I refuse!" "Miss Smith, if you would have listened to what I said , you'd know that I have already chosen. Further had you received the education the founders wanted you to have, you would have learned that following the old religions and being in a coven is not evil at all, rather it grounds our magic, making in stronger and more balanced. Had the past Headmasters decided to teach the old religions again I guarantee you, that we would have had less dark Lords. Such can be seen in countries such as Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Mediterranean's and those countries who still follow their indigenous magics." Miss Smith pursed her lips. She didn't like it. She didn't like it one bit, but the hat was right none of the Governors could change the hats decision when agreeing to let the hat decide the second time, they had entered a magical contract which they had to follow. Most of the Governors thought along the same lines, in truth many were actually curious on what the changes would bring. After all it was only a year and if they didn't like what happened they could always change everything back to how it was. Almost as one the Governors stood and started to fill out of the Great Hall, after all there wasn't any more to do for them.

Slowly, the hat turned to Professor Longbottom "I think the Governors have decided that it is our job to contact the new Headmistress". Professor Longbottom nodded thoughtfully. "She will want to bring her Coven won't she?" "You're smart Mr Longbottom, you would have been a very good Headmaster for our School, but I can understand, why you choose not to". The hat nodded. Deep in thought Neville picked up the hat, bringing it back to his office.

**Valarie Pericolosa Evighet**


	3. Valarie Pericolosa Evighet

Valarie Pericolosa Evighet had always thought herself different. Not in a bad way, as some others who had attended school with thinking themselves better than others. Both of her parents had been muggles who from an early age thought her to have a certain amount of self-worth. That doesn't mean that Valarie didn't struggle with her own image once in a while, during her teenage years, but it gave her a certain foundation in her life allowing her to always act confident even if she was a wreck and allowed her to survive as a Slytherin once she found out about being a witch. This self-worth that her parents had given her as a basis allowed her to be herself and find friends despite being the odd one out in Slytherin. For a long time, at least it felt like that when she had been young, her ambition had been to earn a lot of money and become a powerful player in the wizarding world just like all the other little Slytherins in Hogwarts. Only after she had that potions accident in her 7th year and when she found that as a muggleborn in the UK she literally had no career chances what so ever did she change her outlook on what kind of person she wanted to be.

From then on, she had focused first only on muggle rights but later on also on the betterment of creature rights. But quickly she realized, while other muggleborn and creatures while not quite trusting liked her ideas of improving UK's wizarding world, those in power hated the idea. Only 3 years after leaving Hogwarts, Valarie also had to leave the UK. The purebloods in power had made sure that she couldn't get a job, as she was a trouble seeker, a mudblood who wanted change, despite it not being her right for such. Neither could she get a job in muggle UK, as she lacked qualifications for such though even if shad those qualifications it would have been unlikely for her to get a job after all women in the beginning of the 20th century have still been having difficulties of getting into their chosen work, For Valarie coming out of a wizarding society in which she had lived for the past 10 years it was quite a shock, there women had always been equal to men presumably because owning a wand meant that a wizard wanting to supress a fellow witch would run for the hills for fear of how said witch would retaliate. Thus, she choose to pause her quest for equal rights in the wizarding world and went back home to live with her parents in Sweden.

Yes, it had been a good decision back then to leave the UK and wizarding Britain behind. She had left the School 130 years ago, staring at the letter she had gotten from a very tired looking eagle owl this morning, she wondered whether she should return. It wasn't like she was scared, well maybe a little it's not like much has changed since she has left all though equality for all beings has become better since her departure for her being gone for 130 years little had changed really. But going back, especially as headmistress could be a chance, if she could change the minds of the young people surely they would promote equality for her once they would leave school. She would have to take her small Coven with her, that was for sure. She wouldn't leave them behind. They would probably think her dark for being a part of a Coven and for following the old ways. She would probably introduce those again if she were to be Headmistress: Yes she truly had to speak to Annika, her co Coven leader and then to this Neville Longbottom fellow, the poor guy was truly punished with his surname. He hoped for his sake that he didn't also have a long bottom; those weren't really sexy after all.

Searching the huge house, that she lived in with her small Coven, for Annika, her best friend and coven sister, she mused about how she came to be apart of this unique coven. Covens were usually a bunch of witches who were involved with one which of warlock. These types of relationships were usually used to do certain types of magic, called con or sex magic. Her own coven on the other hand was a bunch of wizards, warlocks and two male creatures (although that was a secret kept within the Coven) that centred around her and her best friend Annika. They also practised Coven magics but the purpose of the Coven was another. About 80 years or so into her being quite lonely due to her not aging, she had furiously started to research how she could go back to being normal, she had found an old ritual a Hindu Wizard had used in order to stop is partners from aging, as he wanted them to be locked in their beauty. He didn't want their looks to change as he quite selfishly wanted to enjoy their beauty for ever. Back then she had met Annika, who had been interested in Nicolas Flamel's as she didn't want to age while her Vampire Lover stayed in his current form for ever, while she also didn't want to become a creature for ever. Somehow Annika had convinced Valarie to the idea of building a Coven of like-minded people who would enjoy being immortal with her. To be honest Valarie had thought all of this to be quite fishy. And it had taken Annika 3 years to convince her now best friend and quite a lot longer to find people whom they were compatible enough to spend the rest of their lives with. Their little Coven held 10 people, although technically you could also look at them at 2 interlocking covens of 5, just as when they had done their first ritual together, they had stood in two interlocking circles of 5. Gaibian a previous friend whom she had met in her travels to china was one of the first to join her, soon Mediocris an Italian wizard and Lunaris an American wizard joined in. The last to join Valarie had been the Vampire Vladimir, a descendent of the Dracula and the black sheep of his family as he wasn't quite as fond of Impaling people as his family would have liked he had been immortal himself already but he simply liked the idea of choosing a family himself, one that didn't die quite as quickly as all the other humans he had befriended in his past life. Annika's part of the Coven obviously consisted of her Vampire Lover Lutz, Issaatxalúash, a child of the crow people of America joined as well due to frustration of people not being able to pronounce his name, he later on called himself Corvus. Solaris, the twin of Lunaris and Fuchs an American wizard and a German wizard respectively were the last ones to join Annika.

Valarie was thrown out of her musing by Annika who had apparently been calling her name for quite a while now. "Hmm?" Valarie blinked, looking at Annika. "Finally, I've been calling your name for the past minute and you were completely zoned out. What has you so distracted? Normally you are always so alert. Are you ok? Has something happened are you hurt?" she started babbling "Oh I know you have seen something I always knew you had some divinatory talent just like me", she squealed. "Annika, hold up I'm fine and I'm not nor will I ever be a seer" Valarie rolled her eyes while thrusting the letter at Annika. "Oh finally, it's that Hogwarts letter, I've expected it years ago. I can't wait to finally be able to see Hogwarts; I'm going to start packing immediately. You can contact someone at Hogwarts telling them of our arrival while I sort everything else." "But Annika, I haven't even decided if…" but Annika had already taken off in the direction of who knows what "I'm going yet" Valarie finished lamely. Huffing she went off to the Floo room in order to contact the guy with the long bottom. Poor guy really.

"Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Headmasters office" she shouted. Thinking that she had to change the address when she became Headmistress as it was clearly way to long she stuck head in the fire.

AN- I'm not trying to be disrespectful by using the name Issaatxalúash, I only want to show that Valarie has been influenced by as many different Cultures as possible. I know that Issaatxalúash is an actual person that has existed in the past as he was a warrior and chief of the Crow people. I myself find different cultures fascinating and I urge all of those who are interested, especially if you live in the US to do some research yourself. But please be respectful in whatever you do. Mostly when I'm describing magic within different cultures in this fanfic it will be made up. So if you ever think I'm not being appropriate please let me know and I will try to change it.


	4. In the Headmasters office

Neville was glad that someone else to lead the school had finally been chosen. He really wasn't the perfect guy to do this. When McGonagall had passed he had basically just taken over. He hadn't changed anything as he was just overwhelmed with the fact, that he was now Headmaster. When he had attended Hogwarts the Headmaster had been Dumbledore, who had already been ancient at that time, regarded as all-knowing wise and powerful. He was only 40 for Merlin's sake. While he had definitely become more confident since being a student himself he realized quickly that he wasn't Headmaster material after all. On top of that he felt like a bloody first year all over. It seemed he had just gotten into a groove with his teaching and now he had been lost in an unknown job.

He knew there were many changes required at the school, even he who had never attended a school but Hogwarts, knew that. When he arrived at the school as a first year, the school had already been lacking in certain areas such as not having a decent history Professor, the fact that the potions Professor was a bully or the divination Professor a drunk not to mention the whole situation with the defence teacher. But since the war, the situation had become more serious. While they were finally able to hire a more permanent teacher in defence other teachers had aged, retired or died and McGonagall had had a hard time finding teachers to fill the job. Most people of his generation were glad to leave Hogwarts behind after their teenager years, as for most it just bore to many bad memories or they were just not made for teaching.

Due to all this he was very glad to hand the job over to someone else. He was looking forward to go back to teaching in the coming school year, He was looking forward to his small office, his Gryffindors and most importantly to his greenhouses. Looking at the piles and piles of paperwork, that piled on his for now desk, he hoped that this new Headmistress person whom he kept forgetting the name of would answer his message soon. As if summed the fire flared next to his desk and he almost fell out of his chair as he was shocked out of his deep thoughts. "Hello?", the fireplace spoke. No not the fireplace, Neville almost facepalmed he should know this he grew up with Floos after all. The person in the Fireplace spoke again "Hi, ehm I'm Valarie Evighet from the Evighet Coven, I was told to contact a Mr Longbottom" she pronounced his name as if they were two separate words he realized "I tend to have a talent to get the Floo to connect to the wrong place despite reading out the address carefully, am I in the right place? " the new Headmistress asked almost shyly. "Yes, yes" Neville almost threw his chair over while hurrying to get out behind his desk. "I'm Neville Longbottom", he peaked his first look at her curiously " would you like to come through to talk about all of this in detail? , I feel like it is easier to do so, without having to kneel in front of a fireplace uncomfortably." So far, he could only see a more normal looking person than he had imagined, a head full of long, brown wavy hair and brown eyes he thought, although sometimes the green flames can be confusing. The new Headmistress Evighet? , smiled at him approvingly "Yes, that seems way better, I really wasn't looking forward to kneeling for a long time. I may not age, but I swear, sometimes I can feel the 150 years after not being able to move for a long time." Her head disappeared, but he didn't need to wait very long as only seconds later a girl stepped out of the fire. He could hardly believe that this woman was 150 years old, she didn't look a day over 17 and probably could if she tried look even younger. He realized that apart from her age his first assumptions of her had been correct, she was completely average looking and could very well be one of his students. He quickly cleared his throat shoving his hand out in front of him, towards her:" Welcome at Hogwarts Headmistress."

"Yes, that I have so many questions! Uhm, thanks, it's nice to be back." She shoved her hands into her Jeans. "I would too, I guess, if I had been in your shoes. But essentially as I already explained in my letter already is that Hogwarts with the aid of the sorting hat choose you as the new Headmistress, as the Governors weren't able to find any other candidate. Oh I forgot, how about we sit" he pointed to a little seating area, that McGonagall had used in the past for meetings with the staff. Nodding the new Headmistress wandered over to the squishy armchair, that Dumbledore would have approved of due to its's horrible pattern. Neville sat himself on the sofa next to her asking one of the elves from the kitchen for tea. Slowly the new headmistress stirred her tea. "So am I to assume, that my choosing has no other reasoning but the fact that the hat said so? " She waited until Neville gave her a nonverbal affirmative, then nodded herself and continued "I have no experience of being a headmistress what so ever, I hope you understand that I do not know what I'm doing I had a quick stunt at teaching a few decades ago but it didn't last long as I am simply not made for teaching. Further as I am a member of a Coven, I am a believer of the old ways, I know while not technically being dark arts in the UK, people who practise them are often labelled as dark. Is Hogwarts prepared for its reputation possibly being tainted?" Neville rubbed his neck, he was clueless, he had no idea what to tell this woman, after all it's not like he had chosen her he only did the job that the Governors had been too lazy or too dumb to do themselves. "Well, there is no official answer that I can give you, the hat is the one who chose you, so I'm assuming that he chose you purposefully maybe Hogwarts wants us to become reacquainted with the old ways", he shrugged his shoulders " I mean the Governors know that you are in a Coven, there were many voices who didn't seem happy with you as headmistress, but knowing those excuse my language old idiots I can only assume that they wouldn't have liked any choice the hat would have come up with, which is why in my opinion we are here in the first place. Although I must admit that as a teacher of this school, I'm almost expected to dislike the Governors."

Valarie Evighet nodded her head in understanding. "So, I'm assuming you realize that I will bring my whole Coven? "Neville smiled, taking a sip of his now cold tea "Yes, that was my first thought actually. I have already spoken to the elves who have informed we that the tower, which houses this office, your future office by the way, also houses two apartments and a basement that has been used in the past as a potion's lab. The apartments itself are on the ground and first floor, while this office is on the third floor. You will simply have to tell Galfridus, that gargoyle a different password depending on which place you'd like to go to and the staircase will move accordingly. If you need more or less space within the apartment's, Hogwarts can create them for you." "Thank you" Headmistress Evighet, he really had to get used to that now, answered. "From your letter I got the sense that there is a lot to do at the school. Would you like to give me an overview of where you think the main problems lie at the moment? I will obviously make myself my own picture soon, but I quite like to know where the most prominent problems lie so I can start preparing. Also, before I forget. When would you like us to move in?" Neville nodded understandingly, "Yes, you can move in whenever you like, but as there is only 1 months to go until the beginning of September I would recommend that you move in as soon as possible, you can always move in and have your Coven follow. I understand that you might have other things to do, so it's not compulsory, but it's going to get hectic soon and there is still a lot to do. But that is up to you. Regarding what the biggest problem is at Hogwarts at the moment is the fact that we don't have enough teachers. It has become harder and harder to find teachers, while more of the older generation retire, while my generation, after the war has reproduced a lot. So now we have less teachers and more students. I've been trying to fill as many posts as well as possible this year, but most of them can barely be counted as substitutes. We are lucky if the sign on for the whole term. But most of them only sign on until Christmas in hopes of us finding someone permanent by then." Headmistress Evighet looked a little shocked, but then the last time she had been at Hogwarts was over a 100 years ago the school must have been completely different. "if you'd like you can take my files with you on which subjects we can offer at the moment and which teachers we have managed to sign on" Neville walked over to his overly stuffed desk fishing a thin looking file from the mess and handing it to the new Headmistress, who also stood. She started moving towards the Floo "Yes, it seems you are right there is quite a lot to do. Luckily only very few of our Coven are busy for the next year, unless they have started making plans while I was gone, I might even convince some of them to start up teaching again, if you live that long you try all kinds of jobs to not get bored. And even if they don't want to at least we will have a few more adults in the castle. I must warn you though there are two Vampires who are part of our coven." With those words she disappeared through the Floo again leaving Neville gaping at her sudden disappearance.


End file.
